Technique for correlating purchasing behavior of a consumer to advertisements

ABSTRACT

Advertisements and promotions to which a consumer has been exposed are monitored together with the subsequent purchasing behavior of that consumer. The information is combined to analyze whether and to what extent the advertisements and/or promotions influenced the consumer&#39;s purchases. Purchases are monitored by producing a machine readable record thereof with a store cash register. The consumer inserts this record into a home unit which stores this information. The home unit is also capable of issuing a reward to the consumer for cooperating. Also, the advertising, promotion and/or purchase data is classified by the home unit into selected categories which can be accessed by a computer for further processing to provide, for example, certain test results of interest relatively quickly because only a portion of all the collected data needs to be analyzed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention is directed to a technique which monitors theadvertisements and promotions to which consumers selected as testsubjects are exposed as well as the subsequent purchases made by thoseconsumers and, in particular, to an improved technique for collectingmore data than has previously been feasible, and to correlate thepurchases with the advertising and promotions.

Expenditures on advertising (e.g. television commercials) and promotion(e.g. coupons) of consumer products in the U.S. exceeded $110 billionfor the year 1990. Advertisers who spend such huge sums of moneyunderstandably want to determine whether the money is being well spentand, if not, how improvements can be made.

Factors which affect the cost of an advertising and/or promotioncampaign include (1) the extent of geographic coverage, (2) theadvertising medium (e.g. print, radio, television), (3) how manyadvertising media are used, (4) frequency of use for the advertisementand/or promotion, (5) the time slot, and (6) the time duration of thecampaign. When an advertising campaign is launched, these factors aredecided upon based on various considerations of importance to aparticular advertiser and which need not be delved into here. However,with the initial decisions having been made, the advertiser must havefeedback to assess whether the campaign is working. A change in totalsales is not enough because that could be happening regardless of, orperhaps even in spite of, the campaign rather than because of it. Whatthe advertiser must know is (a) was a targeted portion of the publicexposed to the campaign as planned, and (b) did the consumers who wereexposed to the campaign purchase the product or services covered by it.

Various techniques are currently available to provide information ofthis nature. However, each of these suffers from various drawbacks. Thefirst, and most primitive, involves an interview conducted by phone or,for example, at a shopping center. During such interview the consumer isasked to recall exposure to a particular advertisement and to disclosethe subsequent purchases that were made. Results obtained with thistechnique are suspect because of the heavy reliance on memory, and aperson's inclination to be biased, perhaps even subconsciously, in favorof what is of interest to the interviewer which then tends to color theconsumer's responses to the interviewer's questions.

A second known approach involves recording the television programming,including commercials of course, watched in a particular household. Thisinformation is stored in an electronic memory. Consumer purchasebehavior is recorded by the use of a bar code reading apparatus, such asa wand, which is passed over each purchased product when it is broughthome. Information available with this technique is of limited valuebecause it is usable only with products bearing a bar code. A greatnumber of products are not sold with a bar code, such as gasoline,pharmaceuticals, major appliances, clothing and unpackaged food items.Moreover, the purchase of services, such as is provided by airlines,movie houses and theaters, certainly cannot be monitored. Also, a greatdeal of effort by the consumer is required to scan each and everypurchased item individually. Since the scanning must be done when theconsumer returns home and before the purchases are stored away, theperson is already tired and/or eager to get started on other tasks and,therefore, may not perform the scanning. Such failure to carry out therecording of purchases part of this monitoring approach is even morelikely for perishable items such as ice cream which need to berefrigerated or kept frozen almost immediately upon the consumer'sreturn home. Consequently, consumer cooperation with this technique isalso suspect in addition to being of limited value due to total relianceon only bar-coded items.

A third technique involves a particular store that has been equippedwith special computer equipment to identify certain consumers and torecord their purchases. Identification of the consumer is accomplishedwith a card given to the consumer and on which a unique code has beenrecorded. When the consumer arrives at the cash register, the card ishanded to the cashier who uses it to enter the code. As the purchasesare "rung-up" on the cash register, they are also recorded as havingbeen made by the consumer whose identity is established by the code onthe card. This purchasing behavior is stored in the special computer,and the information is periodically downloaded to a computing center.That computing center also receives information on the televisioncommercials to which the same consumer was exposed, and collected in thesame way as described above for the second technique. No media otherthan television are provided for. Thus, it is possible to correlate thepurchases made with television commercials. However, this approachrequires installation of relatively expensive computer equipment in astore, and only a very few stores can, therefore, be involved in themonitoring effort. Consequently, purchases made elsewhere by theconsumer go unrecorded. As a result, the amount of information collectedmay provide less than a meaningful sample.

In addition to the necessity for the advertiser to have theabove-discussed advertising and purchase information, it is alsovaluable to collect, store and analyze related information as well. Forexample, many products are sold with promotions such as coupons, specialsizes, product combination, sale price, etc. With such information, theadvertiser can determine whether the product was likely to have beensold due to the advertisement or due to the promotion, or perhaps due toboth. None of the above-described techniques is capable of collectingand storing such information. The terms "advertisement" and"advertising" when used hereinafter should also be understood in contextas referring to promotions as well as radio, television and printadvertising.

Consumers have been given rewards as a part of known monitoringtechniques to improve the likelihood of obtaining an acceptable degreeof cooperation from the consumer. Although the consumers who have beenselected as test subjects may intend to cooperate, many things competefor time and attention with what the consumer is asked to do so thatpurchasing behavior can be monitored. Consequently, despite all the bestintentions, the level of cooperation is likely to drop. Rewards aredesigned to counter this. With the second known technique discussedabove, for example, once all the information on a consumer's advertisingmonitoring and purchase behavior has been processed by computer, certainrewards will be sent by mail. However, this can take several weeks dueto the magnitude of data that must be processed. The impact of thereward diminishes with the amount of time which elapses from the doingof the reward earning activity until the reward is received. Thus, itwould be helpful to speed up the process considerably. Also, the valueof the reward to the consumer could be enhanced if it were targetedbetter. The targeting involves customizing the reward to the purchasesthat are made and/or the consumer who makes them. For example, if theconsumer buys clothing, then the reward could be a dry-cleaning coupon.Likewise, if the particular consumer is a female, the coupon might befor a suitable accessory to the clothing, such as a scarf, perhaps evenin the same store as the one where the clothing was purchased. Thepossibilities are endless. However, the prior art has not provided anyway for speeding up the process of providing the reward and targetingthe reward in order to gain the very considerable benefit of obtainingincreased consumer cooperation.

One further shortcoming of the prior art is the inability to monitorwhether direct mail advertising has been read or simply discarded.Direct mail constitutes about 20% of all advertising in terms of outlay.It would be highly useful for advertisers to know whether and how theconsumer's purchasing behavior is affected by direct mail advertising.

The term "exposed" when it appears throughout this specification is usedin the sense of locating the consumer who is a participant in the testin such close proximity to the advertisement that the probability of theadvertisement having a mental impact is high. This requires that, forexample, a radio advertisement monitoring system provide not onlyinformation about when the advertisement was broadcast or even that theconsumer was in the same house as the radio set when the commercial wasbroadcast, but that the consumer was within a relatively small distanceof the radio set at that time. The same relatively stringentrequirements are applied to television commercial monitoring and printad monitoring before it can be said that the consumer has been "exposed"to it.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One object of the present invention is to increase the size of the datasample, at relatively low cost, for correlating purchasing behavior withexposure to advertising.

Another object of the present invention is to improve the reliability ofsuch information.

A further object of the present invention is to determine the impact ofpromotions on consumer purchasing behavior.

Yet another object of the present invention is to speed up the processof rewarding the consumer for cooperating with the monitoring ofpurchasing behavior and monitoring of advertising.

One other object of the present invention is to target the rewards basedon actual put chases made by the consumer to enhance the value to theconsumer.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a techniquefor monitoring the impact of direct mail advertising on the consumer.

It is also an object of the present invention to aid advertisers inassessing the level of interaction between different forms ofadvertising for determining the best combination of scheduling, relativespending in each of the advertising media, and the order of presentationas to which medium should be advertised in first, second, etc.

Another object of the present invention is to provide meaningful resultsvery soon after the purchasing data is recorded by the consumer.

It is a further object of the present invention to increase the numberof consumers in the test sample and yet still be able to providemeaningful results very soon after the purchasing data is recorded bythe consumer.

These and other objects of the present invention are attained by oneaspect of the present invention which is directed to an apparatus forobtaining and storing information on the purchasing behavior of aconsumer as well as advertisements to which the consumer has beenexposed. An advertisement monitoring means is provided for monitoringexposure of the consumer to advertisements. A cash register meanslocated in a store places purchase information on a machine-readablerecord. A unit is used in the consumer's home, and it includes means forreading the machine-readable record, and means for storing outputsignals from the advertisement monitoring means and the reading means.

Another aspect of the present invention is directed to a method forobtaining and storing information on the purchasing behavior of aconsumer as well as advertisements to which the consumer has beenexposed, comprising the steps of monitoring exposure of the consumer toadvertisements, and producing in a store a machine-readable record onwhich has been placed purchase information on purchases made by theconsumer in such store. The machine-readable record is read by a unitlocated in the home of the consumer, and signals at are obtained fromthe advertisement monitoring step and the reading step are stored.

Still another aspect of the present invention is directed to anapparatus for monitoring the purchasing behavior of a consumer. A storeterminal produces a portable, machine-readable record of purchases madeby the consumer. A home unit is adapted for use in the consumer's house,and it includes means for reading the machine-readable record andinputting signals therefrom into a means for storing data.

One other aspect of the present invention is directed to a method formonitoring the purchasing behavior of a consumer, comprising the stepsof producing at a store a portable, machine-readable record of purchasesmade in such store by the consumer, and reading the record at theconsumer's home. Signals generated by the reading step are stored into asignal storage apparatus.

Yet another aspect of the present invention is directed to a method formonitoring purchases made by a consumer of products and/or services,comprising the steps of providing a portable, machine readable recordassociated with such products and/or services at a site where suchproducts and/or services are obtained by the consumer. The record isread by a unit located in the consumer's home, and signals generatedtherefrom are stored into a signal storage apparatus.

The present invention also has an aspect directed to an apparatus formonitoring the purchasing behavior of a consumer, comprising a home unitwhich is adapted to be located in a home of the consumer and havingmeans for storing data associated with purchases made by the consumer.The home unit includes means for detecting when a predeterminedthreshold has been reached of selected data inputted into the datastoring means, and means coupled to the detecting means for issuing areward to the consumer when the threshold is reached.

A further aspect of the present invention is directed to an apparatusfor monitoring the purchasing behavior of a consumer, comprising a homeunit which is adapted to be located in the consumer's home, and havingmeans for storing data associated with purchases made by the consumer.The home unit includes means for arranging data stored in the datastoring means into selected categories, and means for retrieving thedata in the selected categories in response to a given trigger signal.

Another aspect of the present invention is directed to an apparatus formonitoring the purchasing behavior of a consumer, comprising a recordingmeans to produce a portable, machine-readable record of purchases madeby the consumer in a store. The output of the recording means is used toplace on the machine-readable record information on promotions that areavailable in the store which are associated with the purchases made bythe consumer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an apparatus arranged in accordance withthe invention for monitoring the advertisements to which a consumer isexposed and the subsequent consumer purchasing behavior.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a cash register constructed in accordancewith the invention to produce a machine-readable record of purchasesmade by a consumer.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an apparatus designed in accordance withthe invention for home use by the consumer to combine and store themonitored advertisements information and consumer purchase informationto speed up the process of obtaining test results and to issue aninstantaneous reward to the consumer.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart depicting how CPU 55 in FIG. 3 is programmed toissue an instantaneous reward to the consumer.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart depicting how CPU 55 in FIG. 3 is programmed tospeed up the process of obtaining test results.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Monitoring of the exposure to advertisements by consumers has been donefor quite some time, and is well known. A number of techniques have beenutilized for the print, radio and television media. Any of thosetechniques can be used for the present invention, as long as the resultsare stored in advertising monitoring memory 3 of advertising monitoringapparatus 1. However, in order to minimize the inconvenience to theconsumer and maximize the reliability of the data, the followingparticular techniques for monitoring each of these three media arepreferred.

It is desirable to monitor the exposure of a consumer who has beenselected as a test subject under realistic rather than artificialconditions. Consequently, the testing environment is not that of a testlaboratory but, rather, any location to which the consumer is likely togo during a regular day. This includes, of course, the home and othersimilarly common and normal sites for one's daily activities. Otherwise,it is felt that the test results may be skewed due to the artificialconditions to which the consumer would be subjected. It is alsopreferable to minimize contact of the consumer with testing personnel,and this is done by automating the monitoring process.

In order to automate monitoring of the consumer on his daily routine, itis necessary to provide him/her with an apparatus that can do therequisite monitoring while not restricting his/her movement or being soobtrusive as to somehow affect the testing. This is particularly so withrespect to any apparatus which monitors exposure to radio advertisementsand print ads which are likely to occur away from the house in contrastto television exposure which is most likely to occur in the house. Thus,the apparatus for monitoring the radio and print media is preferablyportable and is such as to be conveniently worn on the person of theconsumer. For television commercials, on the other hand, it is lessimportant because an apparatus could effectively be used which isinstalled in the home.

FIG. 1 depicts an advertising monitoring system 1 for monitoringconsumer exposure to the various types of advertisements, includingprint, radio and television media. The monitoring results are stored inmemory 3 to be later combined in home unit 41 with information obtainedfrom a purchase monitoring apparatus 11 for processing and analysis bycomputer 4. Thus, data collected from monitoring system 1 is ultimatelyinput to computer 4 along with data collected by purchase monitoringapparatus 11. Computer 4 then produces an output showing therelationship of the monitored consumer exposure to advertisements withrespect to the purchased items. Computer 4 can be programmed in aconventional, well known manner to output this relationship in anydesired form, such as tabulated or graphical.

Turning now with more specificity to the detailed configuration ofmonitoring system 1, it includes apparatus 7 for measuring the exposureof a consumer test subject to radio advertisements. Such an apparatus isdisclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,718,106 issued Jan. 5, 1988 to the presentinventor. That patent is hereby incorporated by reference. Briefly, thispatent discloses an apparatus that can be incorporated into awristwatch. It includes a microphone for picking up audible signals froma radio set. A particular survey code signal is periodically transmittedby the radio station and subsequently audibly reproduced by he radio setto be picked up by the microphone. The microphone outputs a resultingsignal to a detection circuit which has been preset to produce an outputsignal only when the particular survey code signal is detected. Such an"event" is stored in an electronic memory together with the associatedtime. The microphone and its associated circuitry have a sensitivity setsuch that the survey code signal will be detected and processed only ifthe consumer is within a relatively short distance from the radio. Thus,it is possible to determine when (i.e. from the recorded time) theconsumer was listening to that particular radio station (i.e. from therecordal of an "event" based on a signal transmitted only by thatstation). By combining this knowledge with the time during which aparticular advertisement was being broadcast by the radio station, it ispossible to determine that the consumer was "exposed" to it.

The television commercial monitoring apparatus 9 can be implemented asdisclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,879 issued Sep. 22, 1987 to the sameinventor. That patent is hereby incorporated by reference. Briefly, itdiscloses an apparatus coupled to the television tuner which keeps arecord of the channels being viewed throughout the day. A detector isworn by the viewer on the head and includes a receiver responsive tosignals emitted from a transmitter installed near or on the televisionset. The receiver is directional so that it responds only when the headof the viewer is aimed substantially toward the television set. When thereceiver detects a signal from the transmitter, it in turn emits itsidentification code to circuitry which records the event, and that canalso be located on the television set. Thus, the event of having theviewer aiming his head at a television set at any particular time iscombined with information on what channel is being viewed at the sametime to provide an indication of exposure of the viewer to thatparticular channel. If it is known what advertisement was beingbroadcast at that particular time on that particular channel, it can bedetermined that the viewer was "exposed" to it by virtue of having hishead aimed at the television set.

In addition to use of U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,879 to monitor televisioncommercials to which the consumer has been exposed, U.S. Pat. No.4,718,106 mentioned above can, of course, also be used for this purposeby adapting it to television use rather than radio. In particular, theconsumer/viewer test subject can be provided with circuitryincorporated, for example into a wristwatch. That circuitry wouldinclude a detector responsive to a code signal transmitted by thetelevision station, for example, and in response only thereto a signalsource in the television set would be activated. The resulting emittedsignal from the signal source is detected by circuitry in the wristwatchand recorded as an "event" along with the time at which it occurred andit indicates "exposure" because the consumer was within a short distancefrom the set when it was tuned at that time to the channel transmittingthe code signal (and therefore advertisement) of interest. All thatinformation would be stored in memory incorporated within thewristwatch.

Print ad monitoring apparatus 5 can be implemented as disclosed in U.S.Pat. No. 4,659,314 issued Apr. 24, 1987 to the same inventor. Thispatent is hereby incorporated by reference. Briefly, the invention inthis patent involves an insert "card" frequently found slipped intomagazines. The insert card carries a switchable transmitter and aswitch. When the magazine is opened, the transmitter will beautomatically switched on to energize the transmitter. The resultingemitted signal is picked up by suitable circuitry as an "event"indicative of exposure of the consumer to the magazine and the ad ofinterest.

Monitoring system 1 is shown in the drawing as including electronicmemory circuit 3 in which the information from apparatuses 5, 7 and 9 isstored. Thus, the data in circuit 3 contains measurements made in eachof the radio, television and print media of the exposure by the consumerto advertisements. Circuit 3 has been depicted as a separate datastorage device for the sake of convenience, clarity and ease ofexplanation. However, it should be understood that each of systems 5, 7and 9 can likewise have an individual electronic memory circuitincorporated therein from which the data can be outputted to computer 4via home unit 41. In fact, this is the case for each of the specificimplementations discussed above. However it should be understood thateach of those implementations was disclosed in he patent document as anindividual monitoring unit. It is clearly not necessary to haveindividual storage devices when the three monitoring systems arecombined in a single unit. Thus, for example, if the monitoring for thethree advertisement media is incorporated into, for example, awristwatch, the wristwatch will have only one electronic memory circuit3 into which data from all the monitoring systems is stored. On theother hand, should individual monitoring systems be preferred for aparticular application, each can have its own storage device. Then, asstated above, the data from each such storage device is downloaded intocomputer 4 without a further intervening memory circuit 3.

Monitoring system 1 is also depicted in the drawing as having a timecircuit 6. As events are detected indicative of exposure by the consumertest subject to a particular advertisement, this event can be associatedwith a particular time that is obtained from time circuit 6. If theapparatus is incorporated into a wristwatch, the source for such asignal is readily available. Otherwise, a specialized circuit forproviding a time signal is provided. It should be understood that eachof systems 5, 7 and 9 can be provided with an individual time circuit,much as has been pointed out above with respect to the electronic memorycircuit 3. However, a single time circuit 6 for all of monitoring system1 has been depicted in the drawing for, again, ease and clarity ofexplanation.

Once the advertising monitoring information has been collected andstored, it is necessary to collect information on the purchasingbehavior of consumers so that the exposure to advertising can becorrelated with the purchasing behavior, as explained above.Accordingly, FIG. 2 depicts details of the apparatus 11 for producing amachine-readable output 13 as a record of the purchases made by aconsumer. As is explained below, record 13 is taken home by the consumerwhere it is inserted into a reading unit. Apparatus 11 is preferably asuitably modified cash register such as is typically found in, forexample, supermarkets, department stores and drug stores. It includes akeypad 15, a bar code reader 17, and a clock 19 for providing the dateand time of the transaction. Keypad 15 includes alpha-numeric keys 15aand function keys 15b. Alpha-numeric keys 15a can be used for enteringnumbers to identify the product by its assigned code, to enter priceinformation, and the like. Bar code reader 17 can be in the form of awand and/or a scanner which reads the bar code printed on the package.The code entered with keypad 15 and/or that which is outputted by barcode reader 17 is provided to circuit 21 which converts it into acorresponding product code. This product code is then outputted for usewith memory circuit 23 which stores price information, memory circuit 25which stores the product name, and memory circuit 27 which storespromotion information (explained in detail below). Specifically, a pricefor each product is stored in a suitable memory of circuit 23. When thatmemory is accessed by a particular code, the price corresponding to thatcode is outputted by circuit 23 and stored in temporary price memory 29.Similarly, the product names for the various codes are stored in amemory of circuit 25, and such memory produces the name of the productcorresponding to the code which is inputted to it. This name is storedin temporary product name memory 31.

As far as circuit 27 is concerned, stores run various promotions to makethe purchase of a product particularly attractive during a given periodof time. Such promotions can involve coupons for lowering the price if acoupon is turned in, 2 for 1 sale, oversize containers sold for the sameprice, manufacturer rebates, combining one product with another product,free giveaways, eligibility for a prize drawing, etc. Such promotionsare stored in a memory of circuit 27 in association with the product towhich e promotion is applied. All of the products being promoted are, ofcourse, stored in the memory of circuit 27. When a product code isentered into circuit 27, the promotion associated with it is outputtedand stored in temporary promotion memory 33. FIG. 2 shows temporarymemories 29, 31 and 33 connected to keypad 15 so that information to bestored therein can be entered directly from the keypad in case thenecessary information has not been stored in circuits 23, 25 and 27,respectively.

Detailed information on the hardware and software used for circuits 23,25, 27, 29, 33 and 35 is not provided herein because it is well known toanyone with ordinary skill in the art, and such details would addunnecessarily to the length of this specification.

Apparatus 11 includes a printer 35 which can be a conventional deviceused to print receipts. However, the output of apparatus 11 must alsogenerate a machine-readable record which can be read by the apparatusdiscussed below with respect to FIG. 3. For example, FIG. 2 showsmachine-readable record 13 to include printed text 13 a such as is foundon any conventional cash register receipt. In addition, however,machine-readable record 13 also includes a magnetic stripe 13b whichincludes information corresponding to text 13a, but not necessarilyidentical to it. Thus, text 13a would identify the product by name aswell as providing the price so that the consumer can double check thecharges. It would not be necessary in text 13a to list the promotionwith which the product was purchased. However, such information is ofinterest to the advertiser so that an analysis can be made regarding theefficacy of the advertising and/or promotion campaign for the product.In addition to such information, magnetic stripe 13b can also store thepersonal code of the consumer who has made the purchases in question.For this purpose, apparatus 11 includes a reader 37 into which a card 39is inserted. Card 39 is assigned to the consumer, and magnetic stripe39a carries the consumer's unique personal code. That code is detectedby reader 37 and provided to printer 35 which records it on magneticstripe 13b. The time and date information from apparatus 19 are alsorecorded by printer 35 on magnetic stripe 13b.

Although printer 35 has been disclosed as providing a machine-readableoutput that combines text 13a with magnetic stripe 13b, a variety ofother possible machine-readable records is contemplated as well. Forexample, two separate records can be provided, with one being thestandard paper receipt and the other being a special card, perhaps evenplasticized for durability. The card could have a magnetic recordingsurface or an integrated circuit built in. The key aim of apparatus 11is to provide some machine-readable record that can be handed to theconsumer at the conclusion of the purchase transaction to be carriedhome for insertion into the home unit described below with respect toFIG. 3.

It is contemplated that apparatus 11 would require minimal retrofittingof existing cash registers in order to make the technique of the presentinvention as widely usable as possible for as minimal a cost aspossible. Thus, in an alternative embodiment, printer 35 would be twoseparate printers, with the standard printer that a cash register isprovided with being used to produce text 13a, whereas a small, separateprinter would be used to provide record 13b. Similarly, the otherinformation utilized to advantage in the present invention, such aspromotion information 27, would also be housed in a small box, perhapseven together with personal code reader 37.

One other point of interest is the fact that stored product code circuit21 may not be necessary as a separately identifiable circuit because itcan be built into circuits 23, 25 and 27. Alternatively, the conversionof the output signals from keypad 15 and bar code reader 17 by storedproduct code circuit 21 may not be necessary if those output signals aremade compatible with the manner in which the corresponding informationis stored in circuits 23, 25 and 27. Under such circumstances, theoutputs of keypad 15 and bar code readier 17 could be inputted directlyinto circuits 23, 25 and 27. Also, temporary memories 29, 31 and 33 maynot be needed. The information stored therein could also be provideddirectly from circuits 23, 25 and 27, respectively, to printer 35. Howthis can be done is well within the capability of one skilled in the artand, therefore, no additional details are deemed necessary.

When the consumer returns home with the purchased goods and themachine-readable record 13 of the purchased goods, home unit 41 depictedin FIG. 3 is made available for use therewith. Record 13 is insertedinto purchases record reader 43 which is capable of reading magneticstripe 13b. Thus, as record 13 passes through reader 43, all of theinformation stored on magnetic stripe 13b is detected and outputted forstorage in monitoring memory 45. Monitoring memory 45 also receives theadvertising monitoring information from memory 3 in advertisingmonitoring system 1. For example, as disclosed above, memory 3 can beincorporated into a watch with suitable ports and controls to downloadits memory contents into memory 45. Thus, memory 45 stores theadvertising information, as obtained from memory 3, and the purchaseinformation, as received from reader 43. That information can bedownloaded to computer 4. Computer 4 could, for example, be located at aremote computing center, and the downloading would be done by telephoneusing conventional means. Alternatively, all of the information storedin memory 45 can recorded on a magnetic disc, and that disc can then besent to the computing center.

With the technique of the present invention as described up to thispoint, it is possible to collect a vast amount of purchasing informationwith minimal expenditures for specialized equipment and with only arelatively minor effort on the part of the consumer. It will be recalledthat one of the above-discussed prior art techniques was of limitedvalue because it involved the necessity of installing a significantamount of computing power in a store, and this for practical reasonscould only be done in a very few stores. However, with the presentinvention, the cash register needs only to be modified to provide amachine-readable record, such as magnetic stripe 13b. If information onpromotions is also desired, then only an additional relativelystraightforward modification is also required. Consequently, theexpenditures required in the stores to accommodate the technique of thepresent invention is minimal. Therefore, many stores can be covered bysuitably retrofitting their cash registers at relatively low cost. Also,it is not necessary to install a powerful computer in the store itself,contrary to the necessity for doing so in the prior art.

It will be recalled from the discussion of the prior art presented abovethat a prior art technique requires separately scanning each and everyone of the purchased products with a wand to detect its bar code andthereby identify the product so that it can be stored as part of thepurchases record. This is a tedious activity which the consumer is aptto delay and, consequently, neglect at least in part. As a consequence,the data collected is suspect. However, with the present invention nosuch tedious activity is required. All the consumer needs to do is tomerely insert the machine-readable record 13 into reader 43. Thisrequires minimal time and effort and, therefore, is much more likely tobe done than the tedious approach of the prior art. Moreover, thepresent invention readily lends itself to various incentives in order toencourage cooperation by the consumer. For example, machine-readablerecord 13 can carry a code which is usable to reward the consumer. Thus,if at the central computing center it is detected that a certain numberof records 13 have been cooperatively read by a particular consumer, aprize can be sent to that consumer. Accordingly, the present inventionsignificantly increases the sample size by making the collection ofinformation possible from a large number of stores rather than, as inthe prior art, from only a limited number. Moreover, cooperation by theconsumer in recording the purchases for later analysis is encouraged bythe speed and simplicity of the action that needs to be taken. As anadditional bonus, the present invention also lends itself to providingspecific monetary or other rewards for such cooperation.

It was stated above that one object of the present invention is torecord the purchase of goods to which a bar code is not affixed, andalso to record the purchase of services. The present invention lendsitself to doing so by virtue of the fact that goods and services can bereadily, inexpensively, and conveniently associated with a card 47 whichcarries a record of the product or service involved. Card 47 can carry,for example, a magnetic stripe 47a corresponding to magnetic stripe 13bon record 13. Thus, for example, it is known that the purchase of anautomobile is not normally accompanied with a bar code. However, inaccordance with the present invention it is possible to attach to thewarranty, for example, a card 47. When the consumer has purchased theautomobile and returns home, card 47 can be torn from the warranty andthen inserted into a product code reader 49. FIG. 3 shows for the sakeof convenience that the product code reader 49 is a separate device fromreader 43. However, it clearly can also be one and the same reader withpurchases record reader 43.

A variety of other products as well as services which normally are notassociated with a bar code can similarly be associated with a card 47.For example, as far as movies are concerned, the admission ticket can bea card 47 or some such machine-readable record. Accordingly, theutilization in the present invention of a reader for detecting productpurchase information carried on a portable machine-readable record lendsitself to the significant advantages which accrue from providing theconsumer with such a record that is readily transportable so that it canbe brought home to a unit which records all of the purchasing as well asthe advertising monitoring activities.

Home unit 41 also includes a personal code reader 51 similar to reader37 in apparatus 11 of FIG. 2. This reader provides the unique codeassigned to the consumer for recordal in memory 45 when it is detectedfrom card 39. Such a signal is not required if it is already stored onmachine-readable record 13. However, it may be required for associatingthe products and services from card 47 since that is not associated withthe consumer's personal code. Each household may have several consumersas part of the test. It would not be possible to know which of thempurchased the product or service represented by card 47 unless thatconsumer passes his/her card 39 through reader 51 in association withcard 47 being passed through reader 49. Thus, it is readily apparentfrom the above that in addition to the already discussed advantages ofthe present invention, it also makes it possible to readily record andanalyze purchase information which was previously unavailable forcertain products and services.

Readers 43 and 49 in FIG. 3 are preferably provided with a cancellationdevice which, for example, punches record 13 and card 47 after each isread in order to prevent mistakenly reading the same purchaseinformation more than once.

It was explained above that direct mail advertising constitutes asignificant percentage of the total amount spent on advertising, but theadvertiser is left in the dark as to whether the consumer even openedthe envelope or proceeded to directly toss it away. The presentinvention lends itself very well to monitoring the impact of direct mailadvertising on the consumer. In particular, one or both of readers 43and 49 in home unit 41, or a separately provided reader (not shown),could be adapted to scan a specially provided code on the envelope or onliterature, such as coupons, sent inside the envelope. The formerapproach could combine the reader with an automatic envelope opener toincrease the likelihood that the contents of the envelope will beexamined. The latter approach is inherently indicative of the fact thatthe envelope has been opened and its contents exposed to the consumer.Thus, if a coupon sent with direct mail advertising is scanned by homeunit 41 and recorded in monitoring memory 45, the advertiser candetermine whether that coupon was actually used by the consumer inmaking a purchase since the coupon code can be recorded by reader 37 inthe terminal in FIG. 2. Reader 37 is provided with apparatus capable notonly of reading card 39 but also coupons as well. Alternatively, aseparate reader (not shown) can be provided for this purpose. Theconstruction of such apparatus is readily apparent to one skilled in theart and, consequently, details thereof need not be provided. Thus, theadvertiser can determine, on the one hand, whether the consumer wasexposed to the coupon based on information recorded by home unit 41 and,on the other hand, whether the coupon had its desired effect in gettingthe consumer to make a purchase based on information recorded by thestore terminal. If it is determined based on this technique that thecoupon did not provide the necessary incentive for the consumer topurchase the particular product, then the advertiser might tryincreasing the value of them coupon in order to assess whether that willhave the desired effect. Consequently, the present invention providesthe advertiser with a very powerful tool to determine, first, whetherdirect mail advertising is exposed to the consumer and, secondly,whether such advertising had its desired effect and, if not, whether thedesired effect can be obtained by changing the direct mail advertisingcampaign.

The present invention also lends itself very well to aid advertisers inassessing the level of interaction between different forms ofadvertising. This can be used by the advertisers for determining thebest combination of scheduling, relative spending in each of theadvertising media, and the order of presentation as to which mediumshould be advertised in first, second, etc. More specifically, adetermination is initially made in some manner which need not bediscussed here that the advertisements will appear at certain intervals(i.e. scheduling) in a particular advertising medium. As a second stage,the advertisement will appear in another medium together with orreplacing the first medium, and so on. The relative amount of money(known by the term "weight") spent in each of these media will depend onthe frequency of appearance of the advertisement, the time slot, etc.Once the campaign is run in this manner, the purchasing results will bemonitored. With the purchasing results in, the advertising campaignparticulars can be juggled by changing the scheduling, weight and/or theorder of presentation. The purchasing results can then be compared withthose obtained previously in order to ascertain whether a desirable orundesirable trend is occurring. Further refinements of the campaign canthen be made.

The value of the present invention can be enhanced by providing homeunit 41 with the capability of carrying out computer processing by CPU,i.e. central processing unit) 55 and a printer 57. CPU 55 is aprogrammable digital computer capable at least of communicating withanother computer, controlling a printer, and controlling operation of anelectronic memory. In fact, monitoring memory 45 can be a part of CPU55. This type of apparatus is conventional and well known. CPU 55 is incommunication with monitoring memory 45 both to receive data therefromon line 59 and to provide instructions thereto on line 61. Of course,lines 59 and 61 can also be implemented in the form of a bus. CPU 55 isconnected to printer 57 for providing data to, and controlling theoperation of, printer 57. CPU 55 also receives data and control signalson line 63 from computer 4. Monitoring memory 45 provides an output online 65 to computer 4. Lines 63 and 65 can be one and the same.

It has been explained above that one deficiency of the prior art is thetime lag between an action taken by a consumer which is deserving of areward and the actual receipt by the consumer of that reward. A span ofseveral weeks is typical. This significantly reduces the impact of thereward on the behavior of the consumer. A maximum impact is obtained ifthe reward follows immediately upon the occurrence of an act carried outby the consumer. However, it has not been possible to do so with theprior art because eligibility for a reward must await the processing ofa huge amount of data from all of the consumers who are participating inthe test. However, the present invention provides the followingsolution.

CPU 55 controls monitoring memory 45 to establish certain "areas" in themonitoring memory which correspond to categories of products and/orservices,. Thus, for example, a particular area in monitoring memory 45would be assigned to health related products, such as mouthwash,toothpaste, etc. Another such category would be assigned to cereals,while still another would be assigned to items of clothing. As thepurchasing information is input to monitoring memory 45 from purchasesrecord reader 43 in home unit 41, the purchase information is routed tothese categories based on the code associated with each purchased item.When, for example, five items have been recorded into a particularcategory, this is detected by CPU 55 based on data provided to it online 59, and CPU 55 responds by controlling printer 57 to generate acoupon as a reward to the consumer.

The manner in which CPU 55 is programmed to carry out this operation isshown by the flowchart depicted in FIG. 4. Step 70 is carried out inresponse to signals from computer 4 provided to CPU 55 on line 63. Thecontrol signals from computer 4 are used by CPU 55 in step 70 to set thecategories based on one or more codes respectively corresponding topurchased products and/or services. Each of these categories is assignedan area in monitoring memory 45. Of course, anyone skilled in the artknows that the mention of "area" is only a graphical way of picturingwhat is really occurring in monitoring memory 45. It is not necessary toactually have an area, as such. This merely refers to the assignment ofaddresses in memory which are associated with a particular category. Inany case, when the categories are set into monitoring memory 45 in themanner described just above, CPU 55 proceeds in step 72 to set rewardparameters for each of these categories. This is done also based onsignals provided on line 63 from computer 4. Such a parameter can be,for example, the number of entries stored for each category. This numbercan, of course, vary from category to category. The reward parameter canalso be time. In particular, a reward can be generated only if thepurchase is recorded within a particular time from when the purchase wasactually made, as is determinable from the time and data informationstored on record 13.

Per step 74, CPU 55 also stores a specific reward for each category.Again, this is done based on signals received on line 63 from computer4. The reward can be the same regardless of the identity of the consumerif it depends, for example, strictly on the number of entries stored inthe category or the elapsed time, as explained above. On the other hand,the reward can also be targeted to particular individuals. Thus, if thereward is such as to be based on the personal code obtained from record13 or reader 49, CPU 55 can determine whether the consumer is a male ora female from a profile of the consumer stored in CPU 55 and accessiblewith the personal code store on record 13 or entered with reader 51. Thereward might be different for a male consumer than if a female is thuslyidentified. Decision box 76 represents steps carried out to determinewhether the reward parameter set for any of the product/servicecategories has been reached. If one has not been reached, then a loop isestablished which repeats this test. If one has been reached, then step78 controls printer 57 to print out the reward which corresponds to theparticular category involved. Thus, this provides a powerful tool forinstantly rewarding the consumer by virtue of providing the means in thehome of the consumer which monitor, record, process, analyze andimmediately respond to the data collected in monitoring memory 45 forgenerating a reward by virtue of printer 57. In addition, this techniqueprovides the advertiser with the capability of targeting the rewardbased on the actual purchases that are made and/or to a particularconsumer. Thus, a different reward will be generated if the consumer ispurchasing soda beverages than if the purchased product is ice cream.Also, if a male consumer purchases ice cream, the reward might be acoupon for more ice cream. However, if a female purchases the ice cream,then the reward might be a coupon for ice cream dishes, for example.

Home unit 41 as depicted in FIG. 3 also makes it possible for theadvertiser to increase the size of the consumer audience participatingin the test while shortening the time required for obtaining meaningfulresults even with the larger audience. With prior art techniques, theuse of a greater number of test participants would mean an increase inthe amount of gathered data, and a commensurate delay in producing thetest results and making them available to the advertiser. Of course, theadvertiser who is undertaking major expenses on a daily basis wants toknow as soon as possible what the impact of the campaign is so thatmodifications thereto can be made in order to maximize the "bang for thebuck". Thus, on the one hand, the advertiser wants to increase thesample size in order to make the results as meaningful as possiblewhile, on the other hand, the advertiser wants to get the results"yesterday" so that a waste of money on a less than helpful campaign canbe avoided. This is not possible with the prior art. However, thepresent invention provides an excellent way of accomplishing theseseemingly conflicting goals.

FIG. 5 shows how CPU 55 can be programmed to implement this technique.Specifically, based on signals from computer 4 provided on line 63, CPU55 sets special categories into monitoring memory 45 much in the sameway as this was done in FIG. 4. These special monitoring categories canbe for both the monitoring of advertisements to which the consumer wasexposed as well as to the monitoring of the consumer purchasingbehavior. Thus, one category could be set for only television programswatched by the consumer, similar to Nielsen ratings, and/or monitoringof television commercials. Another category could be set for thepurchase of a particular product or group of products. This setting ofcategories is represented in step 80. CPU 55 then sets controlparameters for each of these special monitoring categories. This isrepresented by step 82 which is also carried out in accordance withsignals from computer 4. The control parameter can be, for example, thereceipt of a trigger signal from computer 4 on line 63. Another controlparameter might be the occurrence of a pre-set number of items in aparticular category. Thus, if the consumer has purchased five boxes ofcereal on a particular shopping expedition, this occurrence can bedetected by judicious setting of the control parameter so that theadvertiser can identify every household which is a heavy user ofcereals. Another control parameter might be time, so that a purchasemade on a particular day of the week, for example, will be identified.In any case, decision box 84 senses whether such a control parameter hasoccurred. For example, it can be determined whether a triggering signalhas been detected from computer 4. If so, then all of the categoriesassociated with that trigger signal will be transmitted per step 86 tocomputer 4 for additional processing. This approach makes it possible tofocus on only a certain limited portion of the total amount of datastored in monitoring memory 45. Thus, if an advertiser must have resultsvery quickly, his product is separated into a special category andsuitable control parameters are set. Then, only his data must betransmitted to computer 4, collected, processed, analyzed and output.This is a very valuable feature made available with the presentinvention. In addition, a large increase in the number of consumer testsubjects is possible because only a limited portion of the datagenerated by all of them needs to be retrieved from monitoring memory 45and processed in order to obtain the results of greatest immediateinterest.

Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has beendisclosed in detail above, it will be apparent that variousmodifications thereto can readily be made. These and other suchmodifications are all intended to fall within the scope of the presentinvention as defined by the following claims.

I claim:
 1. Apparatus for obtaining and storing information onpurchasing behavior of a consumer as well as advertisements to whichsaid consumer has been exposed, comprising:advertisement monitoringmeans for monitoring exposure of said consumer to advertisements; cashregister means for use in a store to place purchase information on amachine-readable record; and unit for use in a home of said consumerincluding means for reading said machine-readable record, and means forstoring output signals from said advertisement monitoring means and saidreading means.
 2. A method for obtaining and, storing information onpurchasing behavior of a consumer as well as advertisements to whichsaid consumer has been exposed, comprising the steps of:monitoringexposure of said consumer to advertisements; producing in a store amachine-readable record on which has been placed purchase information onpurchases made by said consumer in said store; and reading saidmachine-readable record in the home of said consumer, and storingsignals obtained from said advertisement monitoring step and saidreading step.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said advertisementmonitoring means is portable and worn by the consumer.
 4. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the step of monitoring exposure of said consumer toadvertisements includes wearing a portable monitoring unit by saidconsumer.